Transacting love and goods
K S Sivakumaran
A sale person or a salesman is called a Sales Associate in large
commercial Stores in the U. S. Big Stores in America like the famous
Macy's of New York has a chain of regional big stores in all parts of
the country.
This includes the Ohio state and its big cities. In one of the cities
-Cincinnati- there was for a long time a flourishing multi-shop was
Lazarus.
Macy's amalgamated this business enterprise later and called it
Lazarus-Macy's and finally bought over in its large network.
Yours truly had a short stint and watched the changes that were
taking place between 2002 and 2004 in the commercial establishment as a
sales associate in both the Luggage and Men's Department.
It was a novel and a pleasant experience harvesting goodwill and
presenting and promoting the country of my birth - Lanka- to the outer
world, particularly the cosmopolitan American citizens.
As Customer Service personnel one obtains a rewarding experience in
understanding people, interacting with them, courtesy and developing
one's demeanor as a positive and pleasant personality.
Although personal and yet informative to our readers I wish to share
a fraction of my limited experiences with you.
Experience 1:
As an Asian amidst them almost all customers liked to know whether I
was an Indian. When I tell them I am a Lankan, most of them were curious
to know whether our island is in India.
When I explained to them the geographical position of our country,
"Ah! Ceylon, the beautiful island we've seen in pictures", they
exclaimed. Most westerners are ignorant of other countries in Asia,
Africa or Latin America.
They are engrossed with their own problems and do not move away from
the western-centred orbit.
Experience 2:
A woman colleague at my workplace genuinely asked me whether
elephants roam around the city after having seen a Discovery channel
movie on Kandy Perahera.
I had to explain or rather give her and others a mini-lecture on
Lanka and they were all astonished to know that our country is something
special.
Experience 3
When yours truly was at the cash register serving customers of their
purchases, one kid of four or five asked his mother what I was saying in
my conversation with her. She told him that yours truly was speaking in
an accent which the boy couldn't understand. What she meant was that the
manner of my speech was alien to American accent.
In other words except for the elites for instance from New York or
academics and highly educated people has a drawl and different accent in
speech whereas I was accustomed to the British way of speaking., the
aftermath of colonial influence. One other point what the blacks in the
U.S. speaks are not always clearly understood by the Whites and others.
Experience 4:
Customers to the Stores make it a point to inform the management in
writing whether they are satisfied with the customer service provided
unknown to the sales associate. Yours truly in his short span of service
at the Macy's earned nearly 250 merit badges in recognition. It's not
bragging but true and it shows how human relationship and resources are
utilized to promote healthy functioning.
We shall end here on this subject
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